Pledge is about unity, no matter the language

Nov. 24, 2012

There are some who think that all of our nation’s patriotic traditions were amalgamated during one sweltering summer of 1776 in Philadelphia — that the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance were all handed over to England in one tidy, proud bundle.

While many of these pieces of America’s spine did emerge within a generation of each other, the Pledge of Allegiance is the junior partner.

Our nation’s Pledge — penned by socialist Francis Bellamy, no less — was originally written for a youth magazine and was part of a larger campaign to sell American flags to schools. It was written more than a century after America’s independence, and was first used in schools in 1892 — more than a century after the Constitution was ratified.

It has been notably altered twice during its run. Once, in 1923, to add “the United States of America,” as the government wanted no confusion as to which flag new immigrants were pledging loyalty.

And, of course, it was more famously changed again in 1954 to add reference to us being “one nation, under God.”

Our point: The Pledge of Allegiance is pretty malleable.

When a student club at Rocky Mountain High School recently recited the Pledge in a handful of languages, it divided parents and angered some in the community. It’s a grand tradition, yes, but is it one that it is somehow, in the words of one parent, “sacred?”

Trace back your lineage a handful of generations, and you’ll likely find those who came to this country with a rudimentary — if nonexistent — grasp of English.

Many of our forebears pledged allegiance to this nation with halting speech, or through reciting sounds that had little meaning to them. But the message was the same: That together, we are a nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

We applaud the students and principal at Rocky Mountain High School for raising awareness that we are a country made of up many cultures. And while we come together over a love of liberty, we keep our roots and traditions close.

A love of this nation’s ideals can overcome any barriers — even a recitation in French.